The NWSL's Orlando Pride are expecting ~30,000 fans for their home opener on April 23 at the Citrus Bowl. This would break the NWSL record set by Portland(21,144) for largest crowd. The Pride have also sold over 7,000 season tickets. With two weeks to go, the Pride is contemplating opening a small section of the upper bowl to fill demand.

this also makes me believe that if any MLS club wants a NWSL team, they'll be fast-tracked into getting one. I'd say it's only a matter of how soon the NWSL announces Salt Lake City as an expansion team for 2017.

Comparing the MLS owned teams vs. the non-MLS owned teams is such a big difference. I wouldn't mind down the road if the Red Bulls buy SkyBlue & other MLS buy their NWSL counterparts(Chicago, Boston, Washington, Kansas City, Seattle). Western New York is the only NWSL team in a non-MLS city. Here's each teams home opener attendance. WNY has their opener

The difference for this season is Utah replacing Kansas City and Boston folding. I feel that's the main reason for the uptick in [average] attendance. Houston's numbers are disturbing for a MLS owned team. I'm sure the league will see an even bigger uptick with LA and possibly Vancouver & Toronto joining next season.